Like many other tall buildings in the world, Ping An Finance Center has an observation deck on its 116th floor, at 541 meters high from the ground, from there visitors can get 360 degree aerial views of the cityscape of Shenzhen and its surrounding areas, which include Hong Kong.

The top of Ping An Finance Center

Named “Free Sky”, the observation deck is currently the second highest observatory in China, also only second to that of Shanghai Tower. However, the disparity is insignificant, as the observatory on Shanghai Tower is only 11 meters higher.

Location

The address of Ping An Finance Center is 5033 Yitian Road, Futian District, Shenzhen.
The building is located close to Civic Center, one of the landmarks of the city.
There are many ways to access to the building, the most convenient way is by metro, you can take Line 1 or Line 3, stop at Shopping Park station, and get out from Exit D, and then take half a minutes of walk towards the building. Or you can also take a taxi to get to the building.

Admission

As of December 2018, the standard ticket price of Ping An Finance Center Observatory is 180 Chinese Yuan per person, approximately 28 US Dollars.
Tickets can be purchased on site at ticket counter of the building, and can also be booked online in advance. It’s recommended to book tickets before you visit, as you will not need to wait in long queues for getting your ticket, and booking online comes with a discount.
Chinese visitors can book the tickets from some domestic booking websites, which are only available in Chinese and require paying with domestic payment methods.
For foreigner visitors, the tickets can be booked by clicking here, you will receive a digital ticket via email, then you can use it to redeem paper tickets on the dedicated machine at the entrance of observatory when you visit.

Currently a series of historic cultural exhibits from Britain Museum is being exhibited on Ping An Finance Center observation deck, the exhibition will stop in late February 2019. This exhibition costs no extra fees.

The opening hours of the observation deck is 9 AM to 10 PM every day, last admission is at 9:30 PM.

Process of visit

Before you visit Ping An Finance Center, don’t forget to bring your passport, which must be presented at the entrance of the observatory.
The entrance is at the level B1 of the building. After pass the checkpoint, visitors will first see a model of the Ping An Finance Center, and watch a short film on a curved screen.

The film on the curved screen at Level B1 of Ping An Finance Center

The film is about the development of the city of Shenzhen, it shows how Shenzhen becomes a modern international metropolis from a small fishing village.

After that visitors will take a escalator to Level B2 to enter into the high-speed elevator.

The high-speed elevator is among the fastest elevators in the world, its highest speed reaches 10 meters per second, and can whisk visitors from Level B2 to the 116th floor within just 55 seconds. And while the elevator is moving upwards, visitors can enjoy a video that shows simulated outdoor views.
The observation deck on 116th floor is very large, occupying an area of 1400 square meters, by comparison, the highest observatory on Burj Khalifa is only 350 square meters.
All the windows at the edges of the observation deck is floor to ceiling, offering better views for visitors.

The floor to ceiling windows of the observation deck

And the windows are made to extrude outward, leaving a cantilevered triangle glass at the bottom of each window, so that visitors can look straight down to the street far below it.

Looking down at the street far below through the triangle glass

The observation deck is based on a square that has four sides, facing east, south, west and north respectively. Standing by the east side of the observation deck, you will see the skyline of Luohu District, there are some iconic skyscrapers in the skyline, like Diwang Tower, the one that is topped with two spires, it was the city’s tallest building before 2011, and right beside it is its successor, KingKey 100, which was the city’s tallest building before the completion of Ping An Finance Center.

The skyline of Luohu district seen from the observation deck, with Kingkey 100 and Diwang Tower in the middle in the distance

At north side, you will see Civic Center, an iconic structure that has a blue wavy roof. North of it, you can see Loutus Hill Park, which is a large green space with a little elevation and is surrounded by numerous highrise buildings.

Lotus Hill Park and Civic Center seen from the observation deck

At west side, you can see Shenzhen Golf Club, which is another large green space, it is situated just west of the Ping An Finance Center.

Aerial view of Shenzhen Golf Club seen from the observation deck

Looking further in the same direction, you will see a theme park called Window of the World, which houses many replicas of famous attractions in the world, including a replica of the Eiffel Tower.
On the left side is Shenzhen Bay, and west of it in the distance is the Qianhai District, the skyline of Qianhai is not inferior to that of Luohu, Qianhai also has some iconic skyscrapers, like China Resources Tower, which appears like a gherkin. There are still a lot of skyscraper under construction or planned to be built there, city planners of Shenzhen wish to make it become the Manhattan of Pearl River Delta.

The skyscrapers in Qianhai may not look very clear during daytime, but it will be very clear and gorgeous when night comes.

Night view of Qianhai in the distance seen from the observation deck

So it’s recommended to pick the time near dusk to visit the observation deck, so that you will be able to enjoy both daytime views and nighttime views.
At south side you can see Futian Port and part of Shenzhen Bay. With help of the onsite telescope, or on sunny days, you can see a part of Hong Kong in remote area.

If you don’t know the name of a building, a park or natural area you see, you can always ask a guide, he or she will tell you and explain in detail. Alternatively, there is a device on each side of observation deck, you can scan the QR code on the device to see the information of the buildings or places.

Unlike the observation deck on Burj Khalifa in Dubai, there’s no restriction on duration of visit on Ping An Finance Center, you can stay on the observation deck as long as you want.

As mentioned earlier, if you visit the observation deck before the late February 2019, aside from enjoying views you can also see many exhibits from Britain Museum at no extra cost.